Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Pretentious Quote of the Day

Politico has an interview with Piers Morgan and he shows himself to be about as blissfully un-self aware as it is possible to be without being a wingnut. Take a look at this staggeringly pretentious and statement, apparently offered without a hint of irony:

“I’ve tried to be very respectful about Larry; he’s a legend, and I feel very proud to have followed him. But I think he just slightly needs to button it, because he’s talking nonsense. The reason we’re different is, I’m a journalist and he’s not. Larry isn’t a journalist, never has been.”

Yes, you’re a journalist in the same sense that John Tesh was a journalist when he was hosting Entertainment Tonight. Interviewing Howie Mandel and Kid Rock is not journalism. Yes, he also interviews political figures, but only to ask them the most trite and obvious softball questions. And the only time he’s tried to be a real journalist, as editor of the Daily Mirror, he spent his time tapping Hugh Grant’s phones. He denies any knowledge of or involvement in the phone hacking scandals, but the official House of Lords inquiry into the scandal concluded that his denials were “utterly unpersuasive.”

The only way he could have made this any more pretentious was to call himself an “intellectual artist.”

Comments

I may be wrong but I seem to recall when the phone hacking scandal first broke his comment was along the lines of “We all did it, I know I did”. That kind of thing can make later denials hard to accept.

Ed, you didn’t even scrape the surface of Morgan’s shallowness. Here’s a bit of humor about his interview with Charlie Sheen:

When I asked Morgan why he had interviewed Sheen that day, Morgan described Sheen as “a compelling, fascinating, iconic figure in American cultural entertainment.”

Compelling? Fascinating? Iconic? When has Sheen Jr. been any of these, let alone all three? “Platoon,” maybe, but that was just one movie, a long time ago. He started out as a substitute for Tom Cruise, made a few laughable “action” movies, got eclipsed by Keanu Reeves, then made himself both insufferable and unavoidable in the “comedy” field. In other words, he’s “iconic” because the media establishment DECLARED him so. Sorta like Paris Hilton.

Ed, you might not think very much of Piers Morgan, and take a dim view of his ethics, but the fact remains that the man has been a journalist.

One cannot expect a guy to consider his own capabilities objectively (remember how 70% of drivers consider themselves to be above average?). It would be really amazing if Piers would agree with your unfavourable view of Mr Morgan.

Of course, he might be wrong about Larry King never having worked as a journalist.

OT: The site is weird about flipping into mobile mode. I clicked on the Dispatches banner on the front page and then right clicked to open 4-5 posts that I haven’t read. 4 opened to the full site, 1 (this one) opened to the mobile view. Clicking to comment opened the comment box but also flipped me back to the full view. This doesn’t happen every day but does happen every few days.

As to Piers – he was trained by Rupurt Murdoch’s UK side and imported to here. He, like Bill-O, isn’t low intelligence rather I think (mind reading skills) that Pier’s very good at pretending he’s apart from the stuff he’s standing in.

As has been mentioned…’Moron’ would be dead meat twitching if he ever walked into a bar of Brit squaddies just back from Afghanistan on leave.
It is highly unlikely it will be swiftly forgotten that as editor he OK’d a front page expose’ that was fake from the get go!

It purportedly showed Brit squaddies urinating on an Iraqi prisoner in the back of an army truck….

‘Moron’ still stood by it after it was pointed out that it was completely fake from the uniforms to equipment and the truck type..
Even after the culprit…who did it for gutter press cash… was busted by the MOD ‘Moron’ continued to deny the fact…some journalist.
His bosses kicked him out unceremoniously he was not given notice…just escorted off the premises!

He surfaced after a couple of years being mates with Simon Cowell as a judge……a judge of others…what a fucking insult.